POLAND — Village council members passed a special resolution Tuesday honoring long-running Board of Education member Elinor Zedaker.

“Mrs. Zedaker was first elected on Nov. 5, 1991 and she took office in January of 1992,” Council President Mike Thompson said. “She was re-elected by the people of Poland on seven subsequent occasions, holding office until her departure from the board on Dec. 31, 2019.”

Thompson said Zedaker leaves the office as the longest serving school board member in the history of Poland Local School District. She also was the board member who received the most votes of any elected board member.

“Mrs. Zedaker attended or presided over approximately 600 board meetings during her tenure,” Thompson said. “She guided the Poland Local School District through times of bounty and times of challenge with a wisdom and even-handedness that leaves the district as one of the top performing ones in Ohio.”

“I just don’t know what to say,” said a humble Zedaker, who was surprised at the resolution.

In other business, council heard a presentation from Dan Klecha from the GPD Group and Ryan Smalley from Envision. The two men form a partnership that assists municipalities with developing and implementing a strategic plan for the future.

During the month of January, a strategic planning committee will be meeting to look at developing a plan. The Envision / GPD Group presentation was geared to working to develop the plan.

One of the benefits of a partnership like the one presented was the fact the GPD Group has engineers who work with the planners on infrastructure and projects. Klecha said his company has engineers and architects on staff who can cover a lot of detailed work.

Smalley gave a quick 15-minute presentation on how the partnership could come up with a strategic plan. He said Phase I would be identifying planning issues and focus areas. Phase II would involve an assessment, Phase III would be recommendations, and Phase IV would be implementing the plan.

“We would be gathering the stakeholders together for input,” Smalley said. “We have tents and can set up where the people are and get as much input as possible.”

He closed by saying his company would stick with the village by providing tools and help find funding sources.

Councilwoman Martha Morgan asked how much the village would be paying for the plan. Smalley said because the village is small, the fee would be low, around $60,000. He said the entire program would take about nine months to a year to complete.

No decision was made at the meeting, but the proposal will be brought up at the committee meeting later in January.

In other business:

• An ordinance unanimously was approved authorizing the mayor, solicitor and fiscal officer to execute contracts as required, to carry out the rehabilitation of the Mauthe Bridge in the Poland Municipal Forest and directing that funds be allocated to cover the entire cost or the project and declaring an emergency;

• In a 5-1 vote (Sam Moffie voted no), a motion was approved to pay the township for the portion of paving Diana Drive;

• Morgan informed council she will be attending the ABC Storm Water District meeting to bring up the flooding problems with the creek in Poland Forest.

• A discussion was held about possible use of Poland North School as a senior center.

• Approval was givcen to repair the village’s F650 dump truck at a cost not to exceed $3,000.

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